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We all love to talk about what we have done right with our dogs. What I want to know is what is the biggest mistake you have made with a dog? I think that we learn as much from our mistakes as we do our success so where did you really go wrong?
I will start this with these confessions.
My first mistake was not getting the right dog for the job. Our first SAR dog was Justice. I purchased him from a backyard breeder. I did not know anywhere near as much as I do now so when the man who breed him told me that he came from SAR working lines and that he had high drive I believed him. Justice is a wonderful dog. He does have ball drive, but he is very borderline when it comes to working. He is easily distracted and no matter what technique we have used has never worked out to be the solid trailing dog we thought we would get. When he is on he is on but often he couldn't care less. If I had done my research before purchase and knew what I know now he would not have been my selection. But lession learned and he still is a wonderful dog.
My second and even bigger mistake was with my HRD dog Neko. I did everything right with her selection. She was a wonderful puppy so eager to learn, so fearless, so perfect. She was healing off leash at 4 months old....there was my mistake. Because she learned obedience so quickly, I taught it to her. So now its time to really start learning to search for the source. Command given, Neko get off my left leg. Move my leg, "get to work now" still on my left leg. She was so good at obedience that I had neglected to realise that for SAR work she needed independent thought. I had trained her to take all cues from me and not to think on her own. Crap! I set myself up for weeks of extra work teaching her that on command it was ok to work on her own. Looking back it is a mistake I will never make again.
These are only two of the many mistakes I have made that I learned from. What training mistakes have you made and what did you learn from it?
I will start this with these confessions.
My first mistake was not getting the right dog for the job. Our first SAR dog was Justice. I purchased him from a backyard breeder. I did not know anywhere near as much as I do now so when the man who breed him told me that he came from SAR working lines and that he had high drive I believed him. Justice is a wonderful dog. He does have ball drive, but he is very borderline when it comes to working. He is easily distracted and no matter what technique we have used has never worked out to be the solid trailing dog we thought we would get. When he is on he is on but often he couldn't care less. If I had done my research before purchase and knew what I know now he would not have been my selection. But lession learned and he still is a wonderful dog.
My second and even bigger mistake was with my HRD dog Neko. I did everything right with her selection. She was a wonderful puppy so eager to learn, so fearless, so perfect. She was healing off leash at 4 months old....there was my mistake. Because she learned obedience so quickly, I taught it to her. So now its time to really start learning to search for the source. Command given, Neko get off my left leg. Move my leg, "get to work now" still on my left leg. She was so good at obedience that I had neglected to realise that for SAR work she needed independent thought. I had trained her to take all cues from me and not to think on her own. Crap! I set myself up for weeks of extra work teaching her that on command it was ok to work on her own. Looking back it is a mistake I will never make again.
These are only two of the many mistakes I have made that I learned from. What training mistakes have you made and what did you learn from it?